> EMPs make robot war between states of similar capability pretty unlikely
Hmm, they can just shield the control modules (cpu and memory). And use optical storage or similar for large amounts of data and basic programming.
Also, EMPs usually last only a couple of seconds and can only be effective in a small area. Maybe the robots can just reboot and wait for a valid command a few seconds later by some flying drone.
EMPs burn out circuits, so equipment can't just be turned back on. Also, not an electrical engineer, but my understanding is that shielding involves grounding, which is relatively difficult for things that fly.
Also worth noting that "shielding" electronics is not a binary field-- The damage that occurs depends on both the strength of the magnetic field produced and the specific electronics in question. A strong enough EMP, perhaps one from a coronal mass ejection on the sun, might require a mountain of shielding to adequately protect sensitive electronics. On the flip side, a vacuum tube calculator would be much more resilient than an iphone.
Hmm, they can just shield the control modules (cpu and memory). And use optical storage or similar for large amounts of data and basic programming.
Also, EMPs usually last only a couple of seconds and can only be effective in a small area. Maybe the robots can just reboot and wait for a valid command a few seconds later by some flying drone.